Fern Britton says a famous TV presenter put his face in her cleavage and pretended to sneeze.
The 62-year-old presenter has opened up about inappropriate behaviour in the television industry, and admitted she’s "ashamed" to have kept such incidents quiet for so long.
She told Good Housekeeping magazine: "A famous TV presenter would shake my hand, pretend to sneeze and put his nose into my cleavage. It was thought to be charming and hilarious.
"I would often have my bottom touched or my breasts remarked on. All those things were supposed to be funny and we were programmed to accept it.
"Thankfully, things are different now. As I got older, I have woken up much more to it. I’m ashamed that, in my days as a young woman, we didn’t speak out about things that were wrong and inappropriate."
However, Fern is glad to see that women are now "re-powering" following the rise of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, and she said everyone has a "duty" to call people out for their actions.
She added: "We just want to stand shoulder to shoulder. Whether male or female, if you see anybody behaving inappropriately, it’s your duty to call them out."
In February, the former ‘This Morning’ star revealed she was sexually assaulted during her time at Television South by an unnamed man in a lift when he started kissing her following a showbiz interview.
Recalling the incident, she said: "I remember doing a television show when I worked for TVS. I was in a lift with a man I’d just interviewed.
"He suddenly jumped me and started snogging me. I asked him what on earth he thought he was doing. But it didn’t seem to shame him into stopping."
Fern Britton says famous presenter put face in her cleavage
